Well, last year our passive works out to be $42k/yr, not high as more than half of portfolio was parked as warchest in cash/FD. Now waiting to pick up some cheap stocks and wait for recovery.

Our passive target by age 55:

$84k/yr or $7k/mth from stocks/bonds/FD
$3k/mth from rental of 3 bedder


And age 65, target another $4k/mth from ERS CPF life

Age 26
Local uni fresh grad who is 4-months in his first job. S$62k/yr+ (pre-bonus)

Assets:
Cash - S$43.5k
Stocks (US and Singapore) - S$58.4k

Liabilities:
Personal Loan - S$14.3k (pledged cash to share financing account for 3.5x buying power in stocks investments during covid-19)

Net worth: S$88.6k

Most of it slowly accumulated when I worked during my school holidays (F&B waiter, banquet, retail, events-related), taught tuition during NS and landed a few good internships during undergrad days. Paid myself first and invested steadily since 18 in Singapore stock market.

Born and grew up in the same HDB flat in Woodlands all my life. Middle-income parents who only gave me a good education and taught me work ethics that I'm grateful for. Realised that I have to depend on myself if I want to be financially freed. Single since JC.

Wanna reach 1m by 30 but not sure how. If rely on salary may take very long. Have ample liquidity to extinguish my personal loan (1% early termination fee) but want to retain the optionality for investment opportunities ahead.

Appreciate any advice from any shifu on how to navigate the choppy waters ahead

Early 40s couple

2 freehold properties ($4.6M, loan $1.5M)

Cash and liquid assets $0.6M

Insurance, cpf and other assets: $0.7M

Total: $4.4M

Won't advise you take loan to buy stocks. Your cash need to save up at least one year of your salary before doing any investment especially in this current situation.

To reach 1 mil by 30, you need to gain 250k per year from now for next 4 years. See if your stocks can help to achieve this.

Share financing in the current climate? Your risk appetite is very high. There is potential for massive gains, but you could also suffer losses that will erase all of the hard work you did in the past. Hard to say whether 1m by 30 is possible due to the current economic uncertainty. Also, how much do you expect your salary to grow - is it iron rice bowl (civil service)? How about your other financial responsibilities? Aging parents? Settling down to start a family - any plans?

Now all in US stocks, in 5 years time, potential to Huat big

Not possible unless you side hustle, if u can hit 500K it's a huge accomplishment already!

Bro, have you considered what will happen if the market dips by another say 20% before full recovery? Do consider how you will settle the margin calls in between. Yes, the market always goes up in the long run, but when you leverage, you need to be very concerned about the short term as well.

Don't gamble with what you can't afford to lose. Leveraging for investments is very much a gamble, especially in this climate.

Wow didn't expect so much posts on me taking leverage for investments. So maybe just to share a few thoughts and calculations that I thought through.

My investment approach is simple: Valuing investing in companies with strong balance sheet and deep economic moats that have business performance temporarily affected because of covid-19. I stick to my area of competence and only invest in companies I understand. Time horizon is flexible but usually hold for 6-24 months historically.

There's two kind of debt I'm using:
1) Personal Loan aka unsecured debt (DBS/SC personal loan at APR 3.88%). I have to make monthly payments to the bank/FI. Market fluctuations have no impact on me. E.g. if I buy DBS shares today at $19.40, even if it falls to $12 by May, my creditor cant force me to sell my shares. My only risk is my ability to make monthly payment which for most people is dependent on my job, and thankfully for my case is not an issue even with covid-19.

2) Share financing aka secured debt (Vickers/Poems at interest rate 3.2 and 3.1%). Market fluctuation will have impact because you have to maintain margin maintenance at 1.4x. Once you deposit cash collateral, the credit line is ready for you to tap but if you dont tap, you earn low interest on the cash collateral.

If market goes down, personal loan goes in first. If market recovers, good. If it doesn't and falls further, share financing comes in. I never deplete all my cash. If market side ways, dont do anything.

Let's try a gambling example. In an extreme case where new waves of covid-19 pops up/country in extended lockdown/travel remains unviable, Genting Singapore crashes back to March lows (that's around 40% fall from now). I go in with 0.5x leverage (50% use at unsecured credit and 50% use cash). Maintenance margin is only triggered at $0.35/share. Of course anything is possible but bear in mind Genting Singapore is holding net cash of $0.31/share. Even in March lows, they are trading at 2-3x their forward operating earnings. Take a look at Macau casinos where 97% of their revenue evaporated and they are still trading at a higher multiple. At least that gives me sufficient comfort to sleep soundly at night. Of course, the underlying assumption is the company you choose is good.

Then what if Covid-19 last for many years? That's not impossible but even Spanish flu in 1918 lasted for only >1 year. I choose to have faith in human ingenuity when almost the whole world is trying to find a vaccine for it..

Just want to put a disclaimer: I am not encouraging reckless stock market investments using leverage. It has to be used discretely. It has to be tailored to your financial situation and current position in life (in my case, i'm 26 and my parents dont rely on me financially/I just give them allowance etc).

You are asking shifus here for advice and yet you dont seems too be receptive.

Appears that you understand what you are doing with stocks; I am sure you know how to make it to 1 million by 30 by leveraging on stocks.

Value investing is nothing new and it is important to understand the companies you invest in.

I think you did not point that the main risk out of this situation is retrenchment.

What if you have to sell all your investment today? Will you get back all your initial invested amount. How much will you have made considering if bank wants you to pay back all fhe money with interest today?
Have you wondered why you cannot defer your personal loan payment or not encouraged to leverage into stocks?

Just bringing in different perspectves here and not putting you down on your stock investment knowledge.